Struggle getting comfy at night

[Redheadmummy3]

Hey all! I am having extreme struggles getting comfy at night does anyone have and tips on positions that can help me out? I have many pillows but none are doing me justice! My bump it enormous I never knew it was such a struggle for pregnant woman🙈 My back is in a lot of pain and baby just won't stop moving when I'm trying to sleep! I either feel like I'm squishing her if I lie on my left or she's sticking her foot out my left side and sliding it about when I'm on my right! Very uncomfortable feeling! Help!!😫

[Hannabee123]

Hi there!

I had this at my last few weeks and found it to be awful. I ended up having a pillow fort going on in my bed.
I had one cushion between my legs as that seemed to really help for some reason, I pit one sort of under my stomach when I was lying on my side just so that I didn't feel so heavy against the mattress and I had one behind me to stop me going on my back.

Unfortunately I still had sleepless nights, I still got up every 2 hours to pee and I took loads of naps on the sofa in the day time. I seemed to be more comfortable on the lumpy sofa than the bed
Normally sleep on my stomach so being pregnant was awful. Some people recommend pregnancy pillows but I never bothered because money was tight and you only use them for such a short time. I rather preferred pregnancy night discomfort than I did my daughter screaming her head off all night haha!

[Hannabee123]

Also can you try some paracetomol before bed? That helped me with my aches and settling to bed

[Strongarms27]

I used a pregnancy pillow which I now use for feeding. It was the only thing that helped me get comfortable but, like Hannabee123, I could only sleep for a short time (45 mins or so) without having to get up, change positions etc.

[Redheadmummy3]

Thank you for the advice! I just really can't get the hang of where to use pillows haha! I haven't wanted to take any medication during pregnancy even paracetamol, I've always had a struggle swallowing tablets as well would probably make me sick just now anyway haha! It's just such a pain can't wait to sleep on my back again

[pastabest]

Unless it's also uncomfortable on your back just sleep on your back!

If you are worried due to the (dodgy) research about sleeping on your back in the third trimester you could use your many pillows to slightly tilt you to one side whilst on your back.

[Kittykat93]

Buy a full body pregnancy pillow! I had spd and it was brilliant for me. Used it right up until I gave birth

[Havetothink]

I got a bolster pillow, not a proper pregnancy one but it did the job. Most of the time I use it like a triangle and sleep half sitting up turned on my left side, it was the only way to keep reflux at bay.

[Mousefunky]

Its not dodgy research, there is a definitive link between sleeping on your back in the third trimester and stillbirth. I wouldn’t risk that.

Pregnancy pillows are great, I’ve been using mine since week 14 . Failing that, try shoving a pillow between your legs.

[TinyTerror1]

@Mousefunky the NHS is surprisingly unconvinced about it www.nhs.uk/news/pregnancy-and-child/pregnant-women-should-avoid-sleeping-back-last-trimester/ but it's not a risk I'd take to be fair.

[pastabest]

Having actually read the studies that led to the headlines about sleeping on your back in the third trimester (have you read these @Mousefunky?) I'm unconvinced that the risk is so great that extremely uncomfortable pregnant women should be terrified of sleeping on their backs in order to get a decent nights sleep.

A historical study relied on asking a small sample of women who had experienced a stillbirth what position they slept in the night before they gave birth. Could you 100% accurately tell a researcher what position you slept in last night? what about if you had just given birth and experienced a traumatic loss? How sure would you be that you had slept in your back, and for how long?

A more recent study that made headlines last year found that lying on your back throughout the night sometimes caused the baby to go into 'distress' in some cases, the distress was essentially measured by evidence of a a raised heartbeat.

The researchers quite cautiously concluded from this that sleeping position may be one factor in stillbirth as they could see that sleeping position did influence the babies behaviour in the womb. Every single baby involved in that study was born healthy regardless of the mother's sleeping position in the third trimester.

There is also some evidence that sleeping on your back whilst pregnant can impact generally on blood supply round the body. As far as I'm aware it's fairly widely accepted now that you would start to feel uncomfortable (tingling toes, shortness of breath etc) and naturally change position long before this had any devastating impact on the baby.

The word dodgy was unfair, particularly in relation to the second study, but the conclusions that have come out of that research certainly aren't as cut and dried as 'sleeping on your back whilst pregnant is inherently dangerous'.

There's regularly posts on mumsnet from pregnant women in the first and second trimesters struggling to sleep because of the don't sleep on your back message and it's really unhelpful for it to continually be perpetuated without scrutiny.

[MeadowHay]

Ugh I'm 39 weeks and the last few weeks sleeping has been terrible, not to mention I'm up 2-4 times a night to pee as well. I have a 'support pillow' which is a cheaper, not-as-good version of a pregnancy pillow I guess, I sleep with that on top of my normal pillow as I find it more comfortable to be a little higher than I used to sleep pre-pregnancy. This goes round too so I also have the long bit under my bump to support my bump, then another pillow between my knees if I sleep on my R side. If I switch to the left the support pillow doesn't go round that side so I just move the pillow between my knees further up so the top part is underneath my bump too. The worst part is I'm naturally a huge wriggler and it's really difficult now to turn over from L to R or vice versa, proper military operation and sometimes so clumsy and awkward that I momentarily wake DH up .

[Gemsie1984]

I've just got a Boppy full body pillow and it's SO comfortable.. definitely recommend.